For today's Morning Scan, we are serving #FiscalCliff with a side order of $BAC and a slice of #Bitcoin for dessert

The budget deal reached at the beginning of this year extends an obscure but important tax break for U.S. banks that do business overseas, according to the FT . Under the "subpart F exception for active financing income" (rolls off the tongue, don't it?), income earned on certain transactions outside U.S. borders is taxed only when brought back into the country. The exception was introduced in the late 1990s as a "temporary" measure, but it's been extended every few years since. The latest extension is forecast to cost the Treasury some $9 billion this year. Megabank lobbyists argued, as lobbyists often do, that continuing the relief was necessary for U.S. companies to remain competitive with foreign firms taxed at lower rates. We suspect this news may rub salt in the wounds of some community bankers, in light of Congress' failure to similarly renew the also-originally-tem...